Rise of the Runelords

Cat Burglar

Fortress of the Stone Giants, Part 4

Fireday, 26 Abadius, 4734

Magical barriers have closed over all of the exits to the throne room. Valeria Endrin urges the dignitaries to remain calm as security is detaining an intruder. She then tells the party she has no idea what is going on, but doesn’t think that Amprei triggered the barrier. Their lead suspect is a half-elf violinist, who vanished from the bandstand just before all hell broke loose.

Valeria urges the party to find a way out and get to Amprei’s study in the Old Queen’s Tower. Lea suggests they see if wizarding prodigy Ryah can bring down the barriers. The princess says that she can bring down the fields briefly. Marcus quietly watches Ryah work and determines her ability to lower the door is innate.

To minimize the number of barriers they have to go through, the party decides to head out onto the side of the building. Marcus enlarges himself to carry Shayliss and Ryah, while the others use their own magic to fly or walk across the outside of the castle towards the Old Queen’s Tower.

Rounding the corner of the building, they spot the half-elf violinist slipping out of the tower with something under her arm. The Rune Wardens quickly catches up to surround her, after Zavian pins the suspect with a hold person spell.

The half-elf breaks free from the spell and morphs into her true form as a lamia: a creature with the upper half of a beautiful woman fused with the body of a lion. Astrid and Zavian are knocked prone, but Lea uses more magic to anchor her to the spot.

The creature tries to negotiate, but as soon as Lea’s spell fades she attempts to flee and is cut down. She was carrying a book embossed with a seven-pointed star, and had been using a rare Isandari artifact known as a disapparating gem to elude magical detection. Nualia swiftly lays claim to the gem.

The party traces her path back into the Old Queen’s Tower and from there to the extradimensional study that presently serves as Amprei’s laboratory. They disable the magical barriers on the castle and get back in touch with Amprei and King Aquilos, who were fighting some vampires in the dungeon below—a decoy, apparently.

Amprei soon joins the Rune Wardens in her study. She offers some more details on the disapparating gem, and is quizzed about the Runelords. She ultimately agrees to allow the party to study the book, which was an overview of the seven Runelords just before the fall of Thassilon, written by their contemporary the devil Sermignatto.

Nualia is loath to part with the gem, but eventually hands it over to Astrid for safekeeping.